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Call of Duty: WWII Original Soundtrack by Wilbert Roget Now Available

November 6, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

The soundtrack to thew newly-released installment of the Call of Duty franchise, World War II, composed by the award-winning Wilbert Roget, II (Lara Croft and the Tomb of Osiris, Dead Island 2) is now available for purchase and download.

Roget composed the 21-track soundtrack, which he notes in an interview with Heavy.com was significantly different from composing for previous games.

“There are certainly various trends in military scores set in this era – heroic trumpets to symbolize the bravery of the soldier, snare drums used in action moments, solo violin to underscore the fear and agony of civilians caught in the conflict. But it was important that we made up our own vocabulary of signature sounds, to give our game a more personal, relatable feel.“

The soundtrack was arranged by David Shipps (Titanfall 2) and performed by the Nashville Scoring Orchestra, who also performed the music for Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The Call of Duty: World War II original soundtrack is currently available through iTunes and Amazon. You can also preview the soundtrack on Roget’s Soundcloud.
Game Music

SDCC 2011: GoldenEye 007 Reloaded

July 21, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this SDCC 2011: GoldenEye 007 Reloaded

Hey, so GoldenEye 007: Reloaded was announced today for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. What does that mean? It means you’ll be able to enjoy the previously Wii-exclusive re-imagining of GoldenEye in high-definition on all current-gen consoles. We were naturally curious as to whether the game’s audio would also be ‘Reloaded,’ and Activision had the details for us last night at their Comic Con preview event.

As it turns out, little to nothing will be changed in terms of audio from the Wii version and the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 versions. However, given that we didn’t cover the Wii version, we did get details on exactly who was responsible for the game’s score. As it turns out, Activision went all out for GoldenEye 007, bringing in Bond film composer (at least the last four films) David Arnold along with Kevin Kiner to re-imagine the score. They even sprung for a live orchestra for some of the tracks. The theme song was rewritten to feature vocalist Nicole Scherzinger of Pussycat Dolls fame.

With the legendary Grant Kirkhope being responsible for the original GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, what are your thoughts on Arnold and Kiner’s work? Would you pick up the score if it were readily available?
Anime, Featured, Film, Game Music, Television

Capturing The Dream: Stan Bush Interview

March 22, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 3 Comments Share this

When I recently traveled to the fine city of Los Angeles, I had the luck and fortune of doing what for many remains a dream or a wish, I got to meet my musical idol. In the late 80s, with my big brother at my side, I was introduced to the world of martial arts cinema through the movie Bloodsport. In its own right the movie remains a cult classic and is a fine piece of motion picture history, but what became the most memorable part of Bloodsport to me were the songs featured at key scenes.

Those songs were sung by Stan Bush, a man most famous for his works on Transformers: The Movie, singing such classics as “The Touch” which is widely recognized as the unofficial Transformers anthem. But to say that was his only claim to fame would be wrong, dead wrong. Over his nearly 30 year career as a musician, Stan has won an Emmy, been featured in movies, TV shows, and toured extensively. Recently, he also entered the world of video games by supplying music to Transformers: War of Cybertron from Activision. I sat down with The Man to discuss his long and wonderful career, and got an insight into his views on music, friend Vince DiCola, his partnership with Chikara Pro and his future plans.

Join us as we sip our coffees and stroll down memory lane in our interview with the legendary Stan Bush! (more…)
Game Music

DJ Hero Turntable Controller Better Than Beatmania?

May 7, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on DJ Hero Turntable Controller Better Than Beatmania? Share this

It looks like our friends over at Destructoid are up on the whole Twitter thing. I can barely keep track of a few friends much less all the accounts for game developers and even individual games. They’ve reported that shots of the controller for the upcoming DJ Hero rhythm title from Activision were posted on the official DJ Hero Twitter page this morning. While it looks interesting, I don’t quite understand what you’re supposed to do with it. I guess you press a button and move the “ring” that it’s embedded in like you would a turntable?

Anyway, one can’t help but compare the controller to the only other DJ-like input device out there, which is the turn table from Beatmania. While Beatmania’s version is rather simple, as it was a secondary input to the keyboard buttons, it would have been cool to see multiple turntables in DJ Hero. Then again, I know nothing about scratching, so maybe this is a more realsitic input method? Be sure to watch for coverage of this title in the coming month, are we’re hoping it will be playable at E3 this year.

What do you guys think of the turntable controller for DJ Hero? Are you looking forward to this game at all?

[via Destructoid]
Game Music

Risin’ Up To The Challenge Of Our Rival: Rock Band 2 Review

January 28, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

Alright, at least we’re not as late as we were with Rock Band. Truth be told, I’ve been having a lot of fun with Rock Band 2, and now that it’s out on all major consoles, and is even breaking new ground on the Wii by opening up the SD slot, it’s a good time to tell you what we think.

So, is it better than its predecessor? I’d say it is. There’s a healthy combination of the same ol’ stuff that made the original so fun to play along with a lengthy list of tweaks, and yeah, more DLC that is piling up into something entirely unmanageable! If you haven’t already, find out why you should consider the upgrade.

Read our impressions of Rock Band 2 after the jump. (more…)